Mastering Your Clinical Rotations: Nurse Lauren's Top 10 Tips for Nursing Student Success

So instead of dividing them up over different episodes , as I have been doing , I decided to do one episode with all 10 top clinical tips for success , because you spend about half of your time in nursing school in clinical and I've been through it and I understand that sometimes you just want clinical to end , you want to get back to studying because it doesn't

feel as immediately important as your exams . I fully understand that . But let me tell you , as somebody who has crossed to the other side and is now working as a nurse , those clinical hours are so important . Any opportunity that you can take to practice your skills , to get comfortable interacting with patients is so crucial to your success . So here we go .

I'm going to roll them out , my top 10 tips for success in clinical . Some of these you've heard before , but never altogether . Number one is to arrive early . I've talked about this before . You are setting the tone . This is the beginning of your professional career . You may be working in this same hospital , on the same unit , with these same people .

Your clinical instructor may be your coworker or your boss in the future . They may be a gateway to your first job , or a job 10 years down the line , you have no idea . So start now with good habits , and that means arriving early .

If you have to be there at seven and you're meeting your instructor at a certain spot at seven or 645 , plan to be there at least 15 minutes early . And if you're there really early , great . Have your coffee , go find the cafeteria , sit and study for a little bit .

You want to be there and you want to be the one that's reliable that your professor says well , we all know Jack is going to be on time , or whoever . So get into the habit now . Arrive early . Do not be the one that everybody is waiting for . It is incredibly frustrating when you're just standing around always waiting for the same person .

We all have to deal with the same traffic . We all have to deal with these morning things and of course , there will be exceptions . But arrive early . Number two talk to everyone that you possibly can Introduce yourself . I think there's a problem with clinical that I hear a lot is that the nurses were just annoyed that we were there .

They didn't really want to help us , they didn't really care that we were there . And , yes , there will be nurses who are annoyed by your presence , right .

But I can tell you now as a nurse and we don't have students in my unit because we're in an emergency room and the students just don't really come in there for clinical but , as somebody who's been through clinical and has worked with some of those grumpy nurses , what they really want is to know that you are there to help them .

So if you just say , hi , I'm Lauren , I'm here with clinical today and I just wanted to let you know I'm here if you need anything and let me tell you , they will really appreciate that .

Even if it's something as small as you know getting a blanket for a patient or something like that that is an opportunity , because if they see that you're willing to help them , they're going to be more likely to call you into a room and say , hey , would you like to help me put in this Foley ?

Or have you ever given a heparin injection , or something like that the opportunities will open themselves if you make yourself available . But if you're sitting in the corner texting on your phone , just bored , because you don't want to be there , then you're not going to get those opportunities . So introduce yourself to everybody .

Any opportunity you pass another nurse in the hallway , just say Hi , I'm Lauren , I'm here for a few hours . If you need anything , I'm a student , and that will go a long way . Number three and this kind of goes hand in hand with number two ask what you can do to help .

Let's pretend for a minute you're paired with a nurse , because each clinical experience is going to be different . Sometimes you're paired with a nurse and sometimes you're only with your clinical instructor . It just it depends on your program , it depends on the unit . But let's say you're with a nurse and maybe they are not so happy that they have a student .

Well , ask what you can do to help . Don't just stand there and just watch them . You're not going to get much from that . But if you say , hey , is there anything that I can do to help you ? Anything I can do to help make your job easier , I'm here to help you . I don't want to be in your way . I would love to learn as much as possible .

But is there anything I can do to help . That will go a long way , and with patience too . Is there anything I can get for you ? And you're going to be limited . There's certain things that you can't do yet or that you don't know where things are . But figure it out . If they want a toothbrush , can't be that hard .

Go into the supply room , ask to be let in . Go with your instructor , find a toothbrush . These things will give you more opportunities in the future . Number four have your emotional coping mechanisms . Let me tell you what I mean . You're going to see some difficult things . You're going to see some difficult cases .

Inevitably You're going to interact with patients who remind you of certain people in your lives , maybe who have passed . It's going to hit you out of nowhere . You're going to see difficult things .

That's part of this job , that's part of this career , and you cannot let it impact you to the point where you're going to break down and not be able to perform and do your job . You have to find your own ways to cope with the difficult things that you're going to see .

So , whatever that means for you , if you can somehow just compartmentalize it when you're there and then maybe later when it hits you on your drive home , have your cry and write in your journal about it . Talk to somebody .

If it's really difficult for you , maybe find your instructor , find a friend and just find a private place and just talk it out for a few minutes , deal with it , cope and then go back to work . You cannot bring that , I guess , emotional breakdown into the room with you . You got to just do it somewhere else , cope and find your way .

Sometimes things are just too much to deal with and I have a technique , I have a hack . It's going to sound really silly , but if there was something that I just couldn't deal with , at least in that moment I pretended I was somebody else .

I literally would just pretend I was in a movie and I was playing the nurse and I would go through all the actions , do all the things and I would just remove myself from it and process it later .

I'm not saying push it away forever , but you have to find your ways now because those things will build up and get to you and it will impact your work at some point . So this work can be difficult and you have to find your ways to cope . Okay , number five I've said this before do not take any unnecessary absences .

Your clinical is an opportunity for you to step into your future self as a nurse and see what it will be like .

Do not take an unnecessary absence because you don't feel like going , because I promise you what will happen is when you need that absence , when something actually happens , when you get sick or some sort of life circumstance causes you not to be able to go . You will wish that you had gotten out of bed that day and went .

And let me tell you something else when you really really don't wanna go , that's when the magic can happen . Part of this is just showing up and being there , and once you're there you'll be so glad . I remember there was one day and I've shared this story before there was one day I really just didn't feel like it . I was burned out .

I just didn't feel like going to my maternity clinical , and that was the day I got to see an emergency C-section of twins and as an experience I will never forget . So go to clinical . Don't take unnecessary absences . Six this is kind of a silly one have lots of pockets .

If you're shopping for scrub pants and you're in doubt , look for the most pockets you possibly can have , because you will need to put things in your pockets all day long . You're gonna need your phone in there , you're going to need pens , you're going to need tissues , snacks . Get as many pockets as you can , both in your scrub pants and your scrub top .

That's an easy one . Okay , number seven medications , pharmacology . Whenever in your journey you're taking pharmacology , it is one of , if not the most important class , because it is with you all the time . You're going to see it in other classes and you're going to see it every day . As a nurse , how many medications do I give every day ? So , so many .

And in clinical , this is your time , this is your play time and your learning time . And when it comes to medications , you're going to see a lot of medications being given . Right down the names of all the medications that you see being administered .

Right down both the brand name and the generic name , because in nursing school you're only learning the generic because that's what's on NCLEX , right . But when you're in real life and I'm sure you've seen it in clinical in practice already those two names the brand and the generic , are interchangeable .

Providers and patients will tell you the brand name , probably more often than not , and if you can get just a little bit ahead now and just say , oh okay , a Torvastatin is Lipitor and just start putting that together a few at a time . You'll be that much further ahead when you are in real life . I mean you're in clinical , you're in real life .

But you know what I mean when you are a licensed organ nurse . Knowing the brand and the generic , it puts you so much further ahead and you have an opportunity . Every time you're at clinical you see real life medications being given . Okay , what did that patient get ? What's the brand ? What's the generic ? Why are you giving this medication ? What's it for ?

Why are they taking it ? Because it can have many different purposes and what are the potential side effects . Just start drilling those medications and you'll start . When you see something on an exam , you'll say , oh , I actually gave that on Tuesday . I can tell you all about it . It's your opportunity and take it .

Okay , number eight your phone . We all need our phones . We all have our phones . You know , all the time During clinical , do not pull out your phone to do anything other than lookup medications or clinical related things . Now , of course , you're gonna have a text here and there Go off somewhere privately . Don't be the one .

Don't be the student that's sitting on your phone scrolling through TikTok looking bored . It's not a good look and , like I said , this could be your future place of employment and , if not , all some of those nurses , some of those supervisors , your clinical instructor . They are all watching and you want to be engaged .

You want to be taking this seriously because this is the beginning . This is the beginning of your professional career and if you're not taking it seriously now , what are you doing ? So use that phone very , very strategically . It doesn't look good to pull it out at all , even if you're looking up meds , like I understand .

Try not to Don't use it for personal reasons , unless it's super quick and you're like off in a break room or something . I know we all have things that we got to do . Don't overuse your phone . It's not a good look . You want to take this seriously . Take every opportunity that you can Number nine flashcards .

Take this opportunity if there is downtime because of course , there will be downtime at clinical sometimes and what you can do instead of scrolling through TikTok on your phone is keep flashcards in your pocket . I would always bring like a short stack of flashcards and if there was time in between , especially like if you take a break .

Sometimes you get really long breaks at clinical and instead of , you know , talking to your friends and that's important too you got to . You know , have your nursing school friends , but take this opportunity to study , and having flashcards in your pocket makes it so easy . Like , let's say , you have a med surge exam coming up and it's on GI .

Get some flashcards . Either make them that's the cheapest way to do it . Make some flashcards . Or there's a great set of flashcards from Level Up RN that I highly recommend . I'll put the link in the description of the show . Put some of those in your pocket .

I can't tell you how much further ahead you will be if you take that opportunity to study and study flashcards that can fit into your pocket . Okay , number 10 , and I'd probably say this is the most important one Number 10 is to volunteer for everything . Put your hand up . If a nurse , if your instructor , says would anybody like to blah , blah , blah ?

You put your hand up . You do it . I don't care how scared you are , I don't care how nervous you are . I don't care if you've never done it . I don't care if you are afraid you're going to look silly , do it . The more hands-on skills that you can practice now , even if you forget all of the steps later .

Like , let's say , you're going to put in a fully catheter , your instructor is going to be there walking you through it and to do it once , twice , three times at clinical . When you go to do it again when you're working , you're going to be that much further ahead because it's in your muscle memory . Do the things that scare you .

Give that insulin , give that lovin ox shot , start that IV . Whatever opportunities are presented to you , you be the first one there to say , yes , I want to do it . And you will be so glad that you did . You'll be so proud that you said , screw this , I'm gonna put my hand up and I'm going to do this .

You're a nurse . You have to learn how to do all these things and this is the best time to practice , because you're a student and you're under your instructor's license . Nobody's gonna let you fail and you're not gonna look silly and everybody feels the same way as you do . Everybody feels nervous to do it .

So just do it and I promise you , even if you're shaking and you're scared , you're gonna do it and the next time you're gonna be even more confident and it's going to go even better . So , guys , that wraps it up . These are my top 10 tips for success in clinical , and I hope that it helps you . I hope that some of these resonated with you .

It is my personal mission to help put more great nurses into the world . Next week we'll get back to exam strategies . I just wanted to finish up that list that I had promised to deliver of my top 10 and , until next time , have an amazing day . Bye , bye . Thanks for tuning in to the nursing student coach podcast .